Boys` League Team Needs Playoff Funds

LAKE WORTH -- The way coaches and players feel about it, the only way the Bronco All-Stars are not going to make it to the World Series this year is if they run out of money.

And with that confidence in hand, 11- and 12-year-old team members head to Hollywood today for the first of what they hope are five rounds of tournament play leading to a championship in their age bracket at the Pony League World Series in Washington, Pa.

Between the district tournament and the finals are the state tournament in Orlando, the regionals in Columbus, Ga., and nationals in Tampa during succeeding weeks.

Coaches say this is possibly the best chance a Lake Worth Youth Baseball team has had to bring back a world championship since the Mustang All-Stars, 9- and 10-year-olds, did the trick in 1974.

But because of a late start in fund raising, the team has come up about halfway short of its goal of the minimum $7,000 they will need to make it all the way to the championship tournament, despite getting a pledge of $1,500 from city commissioners earlier this week.

Commissioners also gave the team permission to pass the hat, if they want to, at tonight`s weekly band concert at Bryant Park.

``We are way, way short of the projection of what we are going to need,`` said team business manager John O`Gara.

Any excess money that might have been diverted into the team`s expense fund, he said, has been set aside to help pay for putting on the Mustang League regional tournament the week of July 20.

``If the team does not come up with the money (after any preliminary tournament), the second moves up,`` said coach John Connacher. ``I have no doubt they will take at least the state (championship), but it takes a lot of money just to feed these kids and house them.``

Even an item like laundry runs into serious money, O`Gara said, noting that a full schedule of twice-daily games means two 150-pound loads of wash every day the team is competing.

``At 65 cents a pound, that adds up in a hurry,`` he said. ``It`s an expensive proposition.``

Some of the expenses will be offset by parents, he acknowledged, and a number of businesses already have underwritten part of the expenses to go along with the money raised through bake sales, car washes and other traditional methods.

``With the tournaments already started, we are not going to have a lot of time for intensive fund raising,`` O`Gara said. ``And if there are any rain days in any of the tournaments, that will mean we will have even less time.``